1. Field
The present invention generally relates to recording of audio/video (A/V) data and, more specifically, to an A/V recording device for use in connection with portable media players.
2. Background
The portable media player market has registered rapid growth in recent years. The sharp rise in the popularity of portable media players has raised the demand for new and additional media contents. With the increase in media contents, management of such contents for portable media players becomes more challenging.
Currently, there is no simple and low cost method for recording A/V contents onto portable media players on a real-time basis. Transferring A/V contents to a portable media player typically involves using a number of devices, such as, a computer, intermediate storage, and non-real-time processing, to perform steps like A/V data capture, encoding or transcoding to a desired format, and transferring the resultant data to the media player memory. Such transfer process is typically costly and time consuming.
Stand-alone media recorders that offer real-time recording capability may require multiple-step procedures in order to get the encoded data onto the portable media player. Some of these recorders come with on-board optical disc units and other mass storage devices, which increase their size and raise the overall price tag. Others do not offer wide interoperability and are accompanied by complementing media players. Still others only support recording to a removable medium for intermediate storage and require the removable medium be re-inserted into the portable media player for copy and playback.
Hence, it would be desirable to provide an A/V recording device that is, amongst other things, low cost, convenient to operate, and interoperable with different portable media players, and does not require the use of any intermediate storage device or computer.